Spring Love

Yay! I can come out of hibernation and

cut down on my anti-depressants

because Spring has come to save me.

Hallelujah.

I'm going on three days of bad sleep

and a back full of knots

My brain is a dumping ground for thoughts of all different levels

of unnecessary

and my daughter is two head shakes away from the attitude of a

pre-menstrual tweenie.

So don't count on me making any sense at all

this post.

See.

True to my word. My explanation of

not making sense doesn't even

make sense.

I am just relieved winter is OVeR.

Ugh that was a tough one.

I must go from Agoraphobic to social butterfly in

the blink of an eye.

Because Vegas only has 42 days of good weather

and I have to make the most of it.

First step of a non-agoraphobic life is to leave the house.

Check.

Extra credit if you go out of town.

Plus two.

We went to Santa Barbara.

Oh, Santa Barbara.

Dear, sweet Santa Barbara.

You're so good to me.

We met up with family on Saturday.

Casey for a round of golf

G and me for a day of shopping and yard playing.

I'm a unperceptive, inexperienced mom

so I got to learn the very awesome lesson on:

Why you should put sunblock on your kid.

Because sunburned children are miserable children!

A sunburn coupled with teething was not Ginger's cup of tea.

Man, was she just impossible at times.

But then she'd do something so freaking cute

we'd be all drooley and lovey over her

and only have the imprint of her teeth on our finger to prove

difficult moments ever existed.

See that existential glow about her?

Kind of freaks you out, huh?

Don't worry, I'll give you the recipe:

1 cup of sunshine

+

1 cup of photoshop

It's also a recipe for

dramatic pause.

deception.

Parental Confession;

Sometimes I'm afraid of my one year old.

The girl never looks at me when I have a camera in my hand.

You'll notice all the pictures I have of her are

those in which she is looking off somewhere else.

It's like she's knows.

You know.

That secret they all share but feign ignorance.

The "I know what my mom wants

so I'm going to give her anything but..."

treatment.

They start to get their powers so young

nowadays.

Back on subject. That picture was an example of Ginger

as a soldier in the war against mom.

She didnt want me to get the

"My daughter is a heavenly creature who goes about the world

spreading rainbows and unicorn flakes where ever

she roams. May you be lucky to be blessed with the presence

of her someday." look.

So when being forced into looking directly at her mother

who is holding a camera

she growls and takes an abundance of oxygen in through her nose

repeatedly

as a warning to me and all you in blogland...

She will be no ones bragging pawn.

Man.

I need sleep.

Okay Saturday afternoon. Santa Barbara.

Casey has returned from golf.

With a face like this;

dang, he looks good.

What is that he's wearing?

An hour later my uncle asks me,

Did your husband tell you about his game this morning?

He played outstanding.

I look to Casey.

Best game of my life he says, ever so casually.

I go back and look at my camera.

That's exactly what he's wearing.

The face and demeanor of a man who just got finished playing

the best game of golf in his life.

I'd love to bottle up that special type of adrenaline

he has free flowing in his veins

and sell it on the street corner.

I could probably sell it from my couch too

but street corner just sounds more

gangster.

You know. Anyway I can make myself more gangster.

Oh my gosh!

What secret did he just tell G?!

A real sample from my brain:

What secret did he just tell G?

I wonder if it was about me?

Not everything is about you.

I know.

but maybe he's telling her how much he loves me.

that'd be random.

he's probably telling her he loves her.

Awwww that's sweet.

Okay, I dont mind if it has nothing to do with me.

You should call your therapist.

Seriously.

That night we went to dinner and walked around.

Casey tried to tame Ginger so I could shop

but she wasn't buying any of this

mama's on a vacation crap so we just made it to one store.

We ran into this guy on the street.

Don't you love him?

I love his wrinkles.

Wrinkles are so beautiful to me.

And yet,

Im still saving for botox.

The easter bunny got the memo we were in SB and

stopped by our hotel.

I heard he stayed up late trying to get that bright

yellow bow just right.

And then he was ashamed of himself for taking to much

time out of his life worrying about a bow.

That's what I heard anyway.

Turned out he was right.

Ginger couldn't care less about the bow.

For starters,

she's one.

Plus she's teething. Plus she has a sunburn.

She could give a crap about the bow.

How do I know?

Because she left this:

Out hotel gave us an upgrade because

I informed them

we were celebrating our anniversary.

(Our anniversary of celebrating Easter together....

Ha!

I win!

Damn the Man!)

Dont worry if that makes zero sense.

It's probably because youre not that person.

The person who really feels like you get extra Awesome Life Points

for pulling tricks on Ramada employees in order to get free stuff.

Thats right. I said Ramada.

I'm this hyped up about a Ramada upgrade

(which is basically an "anything but parking lot" view upgrade).

Imagine if we were staying at the 4 seasons...

You probably take less than an hour to blog too.

Aren't you terrific?

Okay.

Really needing sleep.

All in all, I was superbly happy with our hotel because it was

less than 200 a night and had a courtyard like this right outside our door.

Lush.

That's the word I'd use.

The pond was filled with fish

sprinkled with ducks and had lots of these little

guys hanging around...

It was so lovely.

I was able to get a few pictures of G in her easter dress.

It looks like someone hit the PAUSE button on the remote.

How peaceful is this picture?

Do you want to see pictures of her going through her Easter baskets?

(She got a bonus basket from Grammy and Popi!)

Good. Because I took pictures

two days later

when she was feeling better.

(I'm taking advantage of her one year old self)

Awww kisses for the bunny.

Open mouth smooches! Her special reserved!

She let me make her a flower for five minutes.

Eating her Easter candy.

Wait.

I didn't open her candy.

don't worry. She's just snacking on some rocks.

Happy Spring everyone!